In the only previous Steelers-Bengals postseason matchup, Pittsburgh won a wild-card game in January 2006 and went on to Super Bowl XL, playing all road games along the way -- just as the Steelers must do to reach the big game again this year.

The Steelers qualified for the playoffs through a combination of their 28-12 win at Cleveland and Buffalo's victory over the New York Jets, who began the day ahead of Pittsburgh in the wild-card standings.

Ben Roethlisberger threw for 349 yards -- including 187 to Antonio Brown, who had 13 catches and a touchdown -- in the Steelers' victory over the Browns (3-13). Quarterback Austin Davis, starting for the injured Johnny Manziel, was sacked seven times by Pittsburgh.

The Steelers lost running back DeAngelo Williams in the first half with an ankle injury. His status for the postseason is unknown.

With Cleveland down just 17-12, linebacker Lawrence Timmons dropped Davis, who fumbled inside the 10-yard line and linebacker Arthur Moats recovered. On the next play, Roethlisberger completed an 8-yard TD pass to Markus Wheaton and the Steelers converted the 2-point play to go up by 13.

All that was left was for Buffalo to help out.

When the Bills completed their win over the Jets, the Steelers hugged and high-fived on the sideline and thousands of Pittsburgh fans waved their Terrible Towels with delight.